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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFig. 1, “Charlene Chasse portraying Marie Marguerite Rose”, https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CanadaC3\/photos\/i-portray-marie-marguerite-rose-shes-a-freed-slave-she-gets-her-freedom-in-1755-\/388351961562977\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The legacy of the fashion artifacts left behind in what is now Cape Breton by one Marie Marguerite Rose, add an alternative story and contribute to a deeper interpretation of the history of early Black Canadian fashion history. Her legacy might have been lost, but Graham Reynolds in Viola Desmond\u2019s Canada, A History of Blacks and Racial Segregation in the Promised Land<\/em> (2016) pieced together her story from disparate bits of ephemera that recorded various aspects of her life, and when viewed ensemble, a truly inspiring story emerged.\u00a0 Born in 1717, Marie Marguerite Rose was originally from Western Africa in what is now Guinea. Kidnapped as a child into the African Slave trade, she was later taken to Louisbourg on \u00cele Royale (which we now know as Cape Breton Island) in 1736, at the age of 19. The man who purchased her, Jean Chrysostome Loppinot, was a French naval officer and tasked her with raising his twelve children and keeping the family home. She herself had one child, a son, who as result of the laws at the time became enslaved property of the household. His story did not end happily, after fleeing with his mother and the Loppinot family to France during the fall of Louisburg, he returned to \u00cele Royale four years later with the household, whereupon he died at the age of thirteen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This teacup belonged to the Loppinot family who enslaved Marie Marguerite Rose:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fig. 2, “Teacup” Canadian Museum of History. https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/teachers-zone\/women-of-new-france\/marie-marguerite-rose\/teacup<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Canadian Museum of History states of this artifact: “This teacup from the 1700s was found in a well on the property of Marie Marguerite Rose\u2019s master, Chrysostome Loppinot. As a household servant, Rose probably used this teacup in her daily tasks. The Loppinots had 12 children, and her days would have been filled with serving, mending, cooking and cleaning. In the 1700s, there were over 1,330 enslaved people, like Marie Marguerite Rose, across Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pictured below is a document of emancipation. Marie Marguerite Rose would likely have gained her freedom through a similar document:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fig. 3, “Deed of Emancipation of a Black Slave, 1744” Canadian Museum of History. https:\/\/www.historymuseum.ca\/teachers-zone\/women-of-new-france\/marie-marguerite-rose\/deed-of-emancipation-of-a-black-slave-1744<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Canadian Museum of History states of this artifact: “This document emancipated, or freed, Dominique-Fran\u00e7ois Mentor from enslavement upon the death of his master Dominique Nafr\u00e9choux. Marie Marguerite Rose likely had a similar document when she was freed. After being freed, Mentor became an apprentice silversmith. He worked as a silversmith until his death in 1773. Slavery of Black and Indigenous Peoples was legal in Canada until 1834. Some of those enslaved, such as Marie-Marguerite Rose and Dominique-Fran\u00e7ois Mentor, were granted their freedom before this ruling. Many others lived their entire lives enslaved.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n While we do not have any garments left from the stylish and altogether amazing Marie Marguerite Rose, we do have a particularly lovely gown that belonged to another Marie who you may be familar with. Here is an example of a gown from the 1700’s that is still extant and in a Canadian fashion collection: The Royal Ontario Museum. Pictured below is a regal confection that belonged to the last queen of France, Marie-Antoinette\u00a0Jos\u00e8phe Jeanne de Habsbourg-Lorraine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fig. 4, “Robe en fourreau or robe \u00e0 l\u2019anglaise or grand habit (court dress)”, ROM Fashion Collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marie Marguerite Rose, however, had a happier story; in 1755 she became a free woman, and subesquently married a Mi\ua78ckmaq man who had taken the name Jean-Baptist Laurent when he was converted to Roman Catholicism. She also opened up a successful restaurant and inn. An establishment that was known all over the island because of the reputation of Rose\u2019s cuisine, as well as the high-quality French brandy she and her husband served (Jonah 2016; Donovan 2004). Although she was illiterate, Rose was respected for her business acumen, and conducted some of her business transactions independent of her husband, which was unorthodox at the time and also ran counter to French law (Reynolds 2016). Upon her untimely death in 1757, the inventory of her personal possessions, and the record of what they were sold for, revealed that she owned a wardrobe of dresses, jackets and skirts, and that although they showed wear, they were all made from imported fabrics, or the garments themselves could have come directly from France. The textiles were mostly cottons, variously embroidered and striped, and the record of these indicate she was fond of vibrant colours and dyed her clothing to achieve this. She also owned a red satin skirt, and silk stockings; they must have indeed brightened up the long gloomy Cape Breton winters. Only her cloaks were heavy woolens of a more reserved brown colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of particular significance however was her jewelry: a necklace of pearls and one of garnets. As Reynolds states \u201cJewelry was not a common adornment among most of the women of Louisbourg, and it was usually reserved for women of upper class or bourgeoisie status (Reynolds 2016, 94). She also owned a \u201clight flintlock musket\u201d (198). Taken as a whole\u2014her possessions, as well as her obvious sense of style\u2014disrupt the many narratives of race, fashion, and also flout the \u201crules\u201d of who could possess what, and who could engage in \u201cfashion\u201d and possession of luxuries at this time in Canadian history. One wonders how many other lives were lived that completely break apart the \u201cnarrative\u201d of Canadian fashion history. Hopefully more scholars will piece together the unconnected peripheral data that record the life of a citizen to bring more stories like this to light. Her story also focuses perhaps unwanted attention on the fact that Canada has a history of domestic slavery. This actually should come as a shock to no one, our national origins derive from the global ambitions of two Imperialist economic powers, both of whom were generating huge revenues from the colonial slave trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nEighteenth Century Fashion in Canada<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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